


black book

by sunaga



Category: Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Genre: Character Study, Fire Emblem Kink Meme, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-14
Updated: 2011-09-14
Packaged: 2019-07-03 21:35:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15827400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunaga/pseuds/sunaga
Summary: There are some decisions you cannot make until you are faced with them. This is one of them.Natasha, a Shining tome, and a decision that will change her life.





	black book

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted 9/14/11 for [this prompt](https://emblanon.livejournal.com/2753.html?thread=2329793) on the kink meme. You could also consider this a counterpiece to Natasha's section in A Place to Call Home.

They handed her a Shining, saying if she was ever attacked, she would have a way to defend herself. Natasha doesn't see the need; she is a healer; with her staff in hand, she will never be on the front lines like that. When she does venture out from the protection of the general assigned to her, it is with a knight riding alongside her, ready to whisk her away if necessary. Bravery comes easy because she is firm in her faith that her band will come to her aid.  
  
Decisions, are not always so simple though.  


* * *

The young girl's leg is maimed. If Natasha does not heal it, the girl will not be able to flee, and the knight coming behind her will not be able to carry the both of them.  
  
The girl looks at her with wide eyes, "Help me," she says, clutching her leg. "I want to go back to Momma."  
  
Natasha kneels next to her and her staff casts soft light around them.  
  
Kyle arrives. "We must go, the fog is settling in."  
  
She has not had enough time to set the leg right; the girl will not be able to run. The field is already running amuck with mounted soldiers. She'd been lucky to find this thicket their steeds could not penetrate.  
  
"I need more time to save the girl, Sir Kyle."  
  
He looks at her steadily. She looks back at the girl with her glassy eyes and dirty face. Natasha helps the girl stand by grabbing her arm, and letting her wounded side rest against her.  
  
They hobble to the edge of the wood.  
  
"Take the girl." There really isn't any other choice, she is a healer and this is what she must do. She feels fear coiling up her spine, but reminds herself that she must believe.  
  
Kyle looks at her with respect in his deep-set eyes, and takes the girl.  
  
"Amelia was behind me, but with her armor--" He settles the girl to ride double with him. "She'll be here as soon as she can."  
  
Natasha nods and tells him to hurry. If they reach Moulder quickly enough, the girl's leg will only have a scar and no permanent damage.  
  
Kyle gallops away, and the fog settles in.  
  
Natasha retreats further into the brush, trying her best not to be seen in case an enemy soldier comes past.  


* * *

The fog has settled in deeply. She can barely see four lengths in front of her. There are footsteps crunching branches and Natasha knows it to be Amelia.  
  
It is not.  
  
It is a foot soldier, with sword in hand, and with her spotted, he raises it.  
  
There is so little time, and Amelia should be coming soon. All she has to do is believe.  
  
Terror runs from the earth, shoots tendrils through her skull, and flowers in her heart. She reaches for the Shining in her robe, and _knows_ with a healer's certainty that if she focuses the light magic through his heart, he will die.  


* * *

Amelia finds Natasha kneeling next to a dead soldier. She is crying as Amelia did when she lost her mother, and Natasha's screaming, "Why won't you heal?" Amelia comes closer and sees the Mend staff dull in Natasha's palms. As she takes Natasha into her arms, telling her they must leave, she sees a black book, a grimoire with its pages open lying next to Natasha's feet.


End file.
